finalark
SNORLAX
Link to original post: [drupal=1717]Three things that JRPG developers need to stop doing[/drupal]
Any RPG buff can tell you how Japanese RPGs and American RPGs are as different as hot and cold. In American RPGs you play as a muscular guy in his mid-twenties with short brown hair usually with minimal emotions while in Japanese RPGs you play as an androgynous angsty teenager with the world's worst fashion sense. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate JRPGs or ARPGs. However, the are some things in JRPGs that developers seriously need to stop doing. And here they are, all assembled into list form.
3: Stop with the mini games:
What's with JRPGs and mini games any way? In plenty of JRPGs you'll have some annoying little mini game pop up for no reason. You'll then have to spend the next few minuets messing around in some pointless mini game that you're never going to see again. While not really anything major, but still an annoyance.
2: Stop making us aimlessly run around for the first hour of the game:
Don't you hate it when this happens? You fire up your new game, get an ambiguous cinematic in which the general direction of the plot is hinted at, but still makes no sense but will by the end of the game. Shortly after, you're introduced to the main character, and before you even get to know him/her, s/he decides to take a walk around town or something. Forcing you to run all over the place, talking to everyone and going into every building until you can find where the plot went. If it was annoying at the start of Chrono Trigger, what makes you think it will work well in Star Ocean: Til the End of Time or Kingdom Hearts II, huh?
1: Stop trying to be like anime:
If you were to walk up to anyone between the ages of thirty and ten, and you asked them what they associate Japan with, they'll probably say anime. And while that might not be the only thing in Japan, you wouldn't think it the way that some JRPG developers try to make their game as anime-like as possible. But you know what you get when you do this? Generic looking characters, predictable plot, characters with stereotypical personalities, and attempts at humor that all fall flatter than Mr. Game and Watch. The only game to ever do this "anime-like RPG thing" right was Xenosaga, so Tales, Star Ocean, please takes hints from them.
Any RPG buff can tell you how Japanese RPGs and American RPGs are as different as hot and cold. In American RPGs you play as a muscular guy in his mid-twenties with short brown hair usually with minimal emotions while in Japanese RPGs you play as an androgynous angsty teenager with the world's worst fashion sense. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate JRPGs or ARPGs. However, the are some things in JRPGs that developers seriously need to stop doing. And here they are, all assembled into list form.
3: Stop with the mini games:
What's with JRPGs and mini games any way? In plenty of JRPGs you'll have some annoying little mini game pop up for no reason. You'll then have to spend the next few minuets messing around in some pointless mini game that you're never going to see again. While not really anything major, but still an annoyance.
2: Stop making us aimlessly run around for the first hour of the game:
Don't you hate it when this happens? You fire up your new game, get an ambiguous cinematic in which the general direction of the plot is hinted at, but still makes no sense but will by the end of the game. Shortly after, you're introduced to the main character, and before you even get to know him/her, s/he decides to take a walk around town or something. Forcing you to run all over the place, talking to everyone and going into every building until you can find where the plot went. If it was annoying at the start of Chrono Trigger, what makes you think it will work well in Star Ocean: Til the End of Time or Kingdom Hearts II, huh?
1: Stop trying to be like anime:
If you were to walk up to anyone between the ages of thirty and ten, and you asked them what they associate Japan with, they'll probably say anime. And while that might not be the only thing in Japan, you wouldn't think it the way that some JRPG developers try to make their game as anime-like as possible. But you know what you get when you do this? Generic looking characters, predictable plot, characters with stereotypical personalities, and attempts at humor that all fall flatter than Mr. Game and Watch. The only game to ever do this "anime-like RPG thing" right was Xenosaga, so Tales, Star Ocean, please takes hints from them.
I really don't think being similar to anime would be a bad thing for an rpg. I think the generic stock character archetypes and the cliched story are the problem. Making characters that can relate to the player and a refreshing story would be big improvement I would like to see. 